Top Stories From Ncpr

(Jun 27, 2023) The Adirondack Guideboat is a very particular craft. They're made of wood and thousands of screws and tacks. They're wider than a canoe, and rowed instead of paddled. They're only used in the Adirondacks, and they were the boat of choice for professional guides in the 19th and 20th centuries. Very few people still build and repair them, but Chris Woodward is one of those people. He owns The Woodward Boat Shop in Saranac Lake, and his love of guideboats goes back pretty far. He grew up in Paul Smiths (and attended the college, too) and even as a kid, he was obsessed with guideboats. But he knew they were expensive, so:

(Aug 16, 2022) A Thousand Islands artist who created legendary metal creations that dot the North Country and who also had a reputation for his warmth and conversation died a week ago in Hospice care. Will Salisbury was 72. Salisbury spoke to NCPR in 2020 for his exhibit at the Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton.

(Jul 6, 2022) Chef Curtiss Hemm thinks of cauliflower as the "chicken breast" of the vegetable world, a sort of blank canvas upon which to add rich flavors. Since it takes aggressive heat well, he finds it's a good candidate for summer grilling.

(Mar 17, 2022) Being young often means trying out lots of different jobs, bouncing around until you figure out what you like. One Akwesasne Mohawk woman has worked various jobs in the service industry, and took away valuable experiences from each one.

(Oct 28, 2021) Ravens were once a rarity in the North Country, but now they are becoming a common sight. They have a similar appearance to crows, but if you see the two birds together the difference is fairly obvious. Curt Stager and Martha Foley discuss ravens and crows on Natural Selections.

(Oct 21, 2021) The pressure to keep billions of humans fed can have a transformative impact on amimal populations. Overharvesting that targets the largest animals can result in reduction of the average size of species, as seen in Caribbean conch snails. And sport-fishing pressure on large mouth bass can winnow out the most agressive in the gene pool, resulting in a "lazier," more passive remnant population. Martha Foley and Curt Stager talk about the human factor in animal evolution.

(Oct 14, 2021) Keratin, the substance wool, hair, and feathers are made from, makes a pretty thin diet, but the clothes moth has been dogging humanity's closets and drawers for hundreds of years, unravelling the work of generations of knitters and weavers to feed its larvae.

(Oct 7, 2021) Of all the places a cat can hang out, why do do many of them want to hang out in boxes? According to researchers, cats that spend time in close confines are measurably less stressed than those remaining in the open. As Curt Stager tells Martha Foley, it's not just house cats who feel this way.

(Sep 30, 2021) Martha Foley has never succeeded in keeping a nature journal long-term, but Curt Stager finds them invaluable in his work. He records his observations on paper, but also finds great data through researching the journals of past observers, from Samuel de Champlain to Thomas Jefferson, to ordinary little-known North Country folk. His hint - always put it on paper. Whatever became of all that stuff on your floppy diskettes?

(Sep 28, 2021) Sometimes it's not the subject, but the moment that captures an artist's attention. And St. Lawrence County artist Bill Parmer loves to spend time in his pickup in a favorite habitat: along a back road looking for just the right rural landscape in just the right light. You'll find many of Bill Parmer's original oil "plein air" paintings on the walls at Canton Potsdam Hospital, TAUNY in Canton and other regional galleries. This Saturday afternoon at 1pm, you’re invited to the opening of “Small World”, a new exhibit of his art at Lake Saint Lawrence Arts on Main Street in Waddington.

(Sep 23, 2021) Humans, birds, and whales are not the only creatures who can sing. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss recent research that uncovered bats also use learned songs to communicate.

(Sep 20, 2021)

(Sep 16, 2021) We tend to think that dogs do this, and that cats do that. We think animal species have a recognizable set of behaviors that define the nature of their kind. But what about individual animals? Does each have something we could understand as a unique personality?

(Sep 9, 2021) The complex web of species interaction is full of odd associations. Stocking a lake with fish cuts down on dragonflies, which helps pollinators, which helps the flowers bloom. Or it can cut down on amphibians such as newts, which is bad for garter snakes. Invasive flowering purple loosestrife is good for insects and birds that feed on them, but hard on plankton, which is at the bottom of the food chain for everything. Martha Foley and Curt Stager look an unintended consequences of human actions in nature.

(Sep 8, 2021)

(Sep 2, 2021) Martha Foley? - not a fan of bugs. And Curt Stager took a course on them to steady his own reactions. The Natural Selections team looks at the outliers on the spectrum, the largest and smallest of critters with too many legs. New Zealand's weta makes a real handful. The fairy fly is nearly invisible. Some prehistoric dragonflies were big enough to make off with the cat.

(Sep 1, 2021)

(Aug 26, 2021) All creatures breathe in some fashion, but how the job gets done has changed from fish to amphibian to reptile to mammal. Curt Stager and Martha Foley chart the evolution of animal respiration.

(Aug 24, 2021)

(Aug 24, 2021) Ironworking may sound like a terrifying job. Workers maneuver around thousands of feet off the ground, and the metal parts they work with weigh literal tons. But to Walter Benedict, ironworking was just a job like any other.